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To: Electronic Telegraph <et.letters@telegraph.co.uk> Re: : Supermarket sales culture Date: Mon 18 November 2002 |
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Dear
Sir/Madam, I admire the
Prince of Wales’
noble intentions when
he invited the heads
of the major
supermarkets to a
meeting at Highgrove
for talks on their
treatment of farmers
(“Prince's
farm price talks”,
16 November 2002),
but his naivety in
thinking that it might
change anything
suggests to me that he
has
never been
shopping in any of
their stores. Most people
have got used to and
now take for granted
the pushy and
grotesquely seductive
sales culture that
completely pervades
Britain’s large
supermarkets, where
everything is geared
to getting customers
to buy as much as
possible, appealing
always to our
deep-rooted desire for
a bargain: Reduced
from £2.99 to £1.99!
Buy one get one free!
50p off! 20% more -
free! etc. etc.
And then there
are loyalty points to
be earned and vouchers
to be cashed in –
all with the single
purpose of increasing
turnover. Customers are
encouraged to want and
expect as much as
possible for as little
as possible. With
shareholders to
satisfy and the
competition from other
supermarket chains,
how can they possibly
avoid screwing the
farmers – who in
turn screw their
employees, their
animals and the land
they work? What is
needed is a complete
reversal of attitude:
to one that prepares
us to pay more for our
food (not
begrudgingly, but
gladly and thankful
for the blessing that
it is), so that
farmers can be paid a
fair price and
agricultural workers a
fair wage, so that
farm animals can be
kept humanely and the
countryside protected,
its productivity,
beauty and diversity
conserved for the
generations what will
come after us. Modern
economics has given
divine status to the
roles of
“competition” and
“rationalisation”
in its worship of
“the bottom line”,
not only in
agriculture, of
course, but it is here
that the effects are
most grotesque. Organic farming, when conducted in the deeply moral spirit in which it was conceived and not having the amoral “laws” of modern economics forced upon it, is the way ahead – and not just for agriculture, but for wholesome, humane and sustainable economic activity in general.
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